Not guilty, but not innocent, either

Tuesday

Jul 16, 2013 at 12:01 AM

A Florida jury found George Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder and of manslaughter in the shooting death of the black teenager Trayvon Martin. Such a verdict seems inevitable now. There were no eyewitnesses, and a bullet to the chest silenced Trayvon forever.

A Florida jury found George Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder and of manslaughter in the shooting death of the black teenager Trayvon Martin. Such a verdict seems inevitable now. There were no eyewitnesses, and a bullet to the chest silenced Trayvon forever.

Under the law, reasonable doubt exonerated Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watch type. Whether he learned anything from this exhausting and very public quest for justice is unknown. What's more important is whether the millions of people who followed the troubling case grasp the crux of the case: Vigilantism invites tragedy.

By all accounts, including his own, on Feb. 26, 2012, Zimmerman was out in his truck in his gated neighborhood in Sanford when he spotted Trayvon, a 17-year-old black youth, walking back from a convenience store where he had bought Skittles. Zimmerman reported this "suspicious" sighting to the Sanford Police Department on the non-emergency number, where the dispatcher told him not to get out of his car or follow the suspect.

Five minutes later, Trayvon Martin was dead. Zimmerman immediately admitted he had shot the teen, saying that Trayvon had attacked him and he fired in self-defense.

Zimmerman ultimately faced charges of murder and manslaughter, but the jury found reasonable doubt and acquitted him.

There's no reasonable doubt, though, that by carrying a gun that night, by following the unarmed youth, by disregarding the dispatcher's clear direction to stay in his vehicle, George Zimmerman brought about the death of a young person who, until they crossed paths, was simply walking along a street and minding his own business.

There is a world of difference between being found not guilty and being innocent. George Zimmerman will have to live with that difference for the rest of his life.